Cultural Event

David Kanoa James
2/15/11
Cultural event   
Salsa De Opal
    I got the invitation to go down town once again. Because I don’t have a car and I normally don’t have the option, I jumped on the opportunity to get out of the University of Denver area. This night we were off to go salsa dancing at the Opal bar on Broadway.
    We arrived by car and walked into the crowded restaurant and bar. Onstage was a man with a mic rocking his hips back and fourth to he music. On the floor were rows of people all staring at him stumbling to keep up with his motions. We fell in line, my 4 female friends and I to follow the others. Moving back and fourth we almost resembled a line dancing club, all in unison trying to keep with the groove.
    As the night progressed we added moves to our limited arsenal of salsa knowledge. After about an hour the floor opened up for dancing and we took our positions on the outside to avoid all the better more experienced dancers to have the center. I danced with my friends and stumbled around and by the end of the night I was twirling and diping them. It turned out to be a wonderful night and I defiantly impressed some ladies with my previous ballroom skills.
    However, the highlight of mylife was watching the instructor come off the couch for a couple of dances and selectively pick a few women from the audience. With them he didn’t dance, using the word dance would be an insult to the motion that man exemplified, he flew if anything.  He partnered with another experienced dancer and they commanded the floor. Slowly but surely the others stepped back to watch them, they entranced the entire joint. After they finished there was slight applause and my friend walked up to him to ask him if he would dance with her. He agreed but what followed was unexpected to me. He didn’t turn her once through the entire song.
    My friend expected to look like the previous partner but that was not the case. The instructor was much more interested in having my friend learn the basics before learning to look good. As they danced together the floor populated once again with the many people from different walks of life, heritages and ages.
    At the end of the night we walked back to our cars and drove home. It was a success and that was the first time I had ever danced the salsa, let alone in public. We decided to go back thProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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next Friday and the Friday after that.